


Appreciate the Little Things

by bearinapotatosack



Series: Star Trek [20]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, Caretaking, Desert, Doppelganger, Friendship, Gen, Horseback Riding, Nature, Post-Star Trek Beyond, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:01:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28799502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bearinapotatosack/pseuds/bearinapotatosack
Summary: Leonard McCoy has spent enough time in space to know when things go wrong. But this time, when something has gone seriously wrong, he finds a strange sense of tranquility. Along with himself, from another timeline.OrBones finds himself in a universe where the third world war didn't end up bettering humanity.
Series: Star Trek [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1843510
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	Appreciate the Little Things

The air was fresh in his lungs. He'd never get used to that again, that burn, that sting that came when the air was new. Not the recycled shit you got on the Enterprise, the kind that had passed through every organism at least thrice before it reached you. He wanted to drown in all this clean air.

Dust covered the porch and his feet. This house was so old and worn yet he felt so connected to the chipped paint. His heart lay here, on the edge of the world, in the middle of a desert.

He walked down onto the grass and curled his toes. It tickled and it made him smile all the more. Dew soaked the soles of his feet, crept into the cracks and ran over the dry skin formed from decades of stomping in tough boots.

A whistle entered his ears, the trees waved and danced and drifted on the breeze as it picked up. Petals would've made this prettier but he knew they'd be here in the spring, for now, it was summer and beads of sweat ran down the back of his neck.

This universe was unique in that it was so similar to his own. The trees blew the same, the sun felt the same on his skin and the thin part of his hair. 

Of course, this entire universe was just as wildly different as it was the same. The tranquil feeling that inhabited him was different. More importantly, there was no Federation, not even a United Earth. Humanity didn't evolve past the third world war, hadn't made contact with the Vulcans and never had the motivation to eradicate everything that had been in their time, so whoever was left kept to themselves in small villages.

This suited him fine. He visited the town every morning on his horse, sold his wares and collected what he needed. 

One surprise was how quick he'd adapted to this life. He remembered his uncles back home, Dave and his husband Dave, who ran a ranch right next to a nature reserve. The reserve where he proposed to Jocelyn. It was somewhere in his blood, running a farm.

It was the same almost every day, a welcome change after the chaos of the ship. Collect the crops, see to the hens and the sheep and the cows and the horses, ride to town and sell his wares, arrive back and look after Leonard.

He almost forgot someone else had arrived here when he did. Him, a Leonard McCoy from another universe, the same universe as Ambassador Spock. 

This version of him was older, hair was grey and face worn with far too many adventures. He'd told him most of his life, about how his Enterprise-A was officially decommissioned and he'd just escaped a Klingon camp when he arrived on this planet.

This new world didn't agree with that version of him though. Something about an entire world where he didn't exist, nor his friends or partners, hadn't agreed with him since they'd met. 

Today would be no different than the rest.

He uncurled his toes and took another deep breath of that crisp air. Leonard walked onto the porch behind him, placing the pestle and mortar onto the worn glass table with the jug of water. 

"Getting sentimental?" He said as he collapsed onto the wicker chair.

"More appreciating the little things,"

He climbed the steps and began to prepare a tonic, the same one he gave him every afternoon, different from the one he gave him in the morning. All of this additional knowledge came from a book he'd worn even more than it was when he found it.

After adding some more water, honey and lemon he poured the green liquid into his glass and watched him gargle it down. He made the same face he always did.

"God, you've been givin' me that stuff for nine years and I still ain't got used to it,"

He took the glass from his hand and cleaned it, serving him sons water to wash down the all too familiar tang of lemon and bitter herbs. 

"Hey, you had a year without it," They smiled at first, but his grin fell when the time hit him. "Ten years in another universe,"

The wind whistled again. Harsher this time. He couldn't believe he'd been gone that long, he'd been gone and hadn't been able to become bitter at his friends. Leonard wouldn't allow that.

"Do you think the same amount of time has passed for them?"

Leonard exhaled, "You ask me that every year on your Jo's birthday,"

"I know, I know, and every year you don't have an answer,"

"Actually, I think I might have one for you, Leo," 

That nickname, Leo. The last person he'd let call him that was his father on his deathbed. He thought, no, hoped that it would die with him, there was too much pain in those three letters. Too many memories and too much kindness reminded him of a world that was once kind but now wasn't. Or so he thought.

They'd needed something to differentiate each other, Leonard had suggested Leo. Who better to bring back an old nickname than himself?

"I don't think it's been a decade for them, it's probably been more like ten hours," A misty glaze took over his eyes. "If it had been ten years we'd been communicating with them, or we'd at least have gotten a message by now,"

He smiled at him, and sniffled, then got up and pointed towards the door, "Come on, boy, you promised me a trip to the riverside," and made his way to the small horse and wagon, ready to ride off into the hazy melting sunset for another evening.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I watched Interstellar and actually really liked it, I've been listening to the soundtrack for a few months and really love it. I also watched Search for Spock and have been listening to the same 3 Eagles songs on repeat (Train Leave Here This Morning, New Kid In Town and Tequila Sunrise).
> 
> I'm going to write more for this series, I don't really know what and I'm kinda happy about that. I always write things with a plan and sometimes it seems I'm only writing to get it finished but with this I just want to make something that's tranquil and sad and happy. This basically means I have no idea where it's going and that's exciting!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this! Leave a kudos and a comment if you did!


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